Lovejoy Robotics held a second tournament in Lovejoy High School. This time, instead of disks being flung, there are plastic triballs flying as a team match loads. If you haven’t previously known, Lovejoy Robotics is a program that participates in the VEX Robotics Competition. In these school teams, there are varying levels between Varsity, Junior Varsity Black, Junior Varsity Red, and Engineers In Training. Annually, these teams compete in competitions for this year’s game, which is Over Under, and do their best to win awards, make it to Regionals, and exceed from there. As regularly, the Lovejoy Robotics program holds two competitions in Lovejoy High School, both named ‘For the Love of Bots’. 

The first competition allowed all teams in Lovejoy to compete. However, the second time around for this tournament, teams that hadn’t qualified for Regionals got to compete, or competed for another circumstance. This year’s Lovejoy teams competing in For the Love of Bots 2 were: 1082S, 1082H, 1082G, and 1082D. The levels for each group are 1082S in Junior Varsity Black, and 1082G, 1082H, and 1082D in Junior Varsity Red.

Not only were there Lovejoy teams competing, but also other teams from different school areas in Texas such as Fort Worth, Garland, Plano, Frisco, Leonard, Sachse, Southlake, Granbury, Wylie, Dallas, Commerce, Anna, and Plano.

1082S consisting of Austin Hummel, Spencer Bemis, Lily Helfand, Frankie Portera, Teni Segun, Tray Van Dillen, Victoria Dias, and Julia Johnson made it to Quarter-finals and won the Excellence Award.

1082S had not only won Excellence, but also qualified for the Regional Championship as well, which will be held in Abilene, Texas.

Teni Segun, a notebooker, stated, “It [the competition] was actually really good. Everything went well and things worked as they were supposed to, and [we] improved our skills score”

Lily Helfand, a notebooker, stated, “It went really well, our score was 5 and 1. We won Excellence and region quals. It was our best competition for the season.”

1082H, consisting of Devin Goins, Noah Hummel, Ace Ernst, Jerry Wang, Josh Wilde, and Gavin Wagner, had won the “Think Award”. When asked how the competition went overall for them:   

“Competition went pretty well and was  probably our best showing of this year. Although, we did lose a very winnable match due to a battery clipping issue, so we’re still a little frustrated from that,” Devin, a match loader and on the drive team (and occasionally builder), explained.

1082G with members Zahara Abedin, Abeer Jaferi, Madison Mejia, Garrett Licker, Jack Vondeersar, Owen O’Dowd, Bridget O’Dowd, and Cooper Delaney had made it to Quarter-finalis, with the overall winning record of 6-0-0 in Qualifications matches. 

“I thought the competition in robotics is at a pretty good level, so that you are challenged but not overwhelmed. Next year I want to contribute more…I have learned a lot about the working of robotics,” explained Cooper Delaney, a builder and freshman.

1082D consisting of Aarathi Devakumar, Nathan Sy, Shaurya Mazumdar, Srivatsa Rao, Varad Tiwari, Natasa Gittemeier, Noah Geoge, and Jett Nguyen had a strong showing at this tournament. When asked how a member felt, Aarathi Devakumar, a senior and the strategist and notebooker, said,

“I felt extremely nervous and excited at the same time. Honestly, I was so excited that we were going to compete and that we got moved up a tier…This is a great memory of my last senior year”.

1082G ranked 7th, 1082S ranked 8th, 1082H ranked 18th , and 1082D ranked 45th.

Additionally, many volunteers of students from the Lovejoy Robotics teams and also parents had helped out through the day, and some alumni, Iris, Joel, Leonna, Isaac and others had also come to assist and support in the competition as well.

“It was a lot of work, but in the end it was fun and I enjoyed helping the program,” as stated by Alex Vester, sophomore and programmer in robotics.

Overall, all teams worked hard and did amazing in the competition. All the volunteers that had come,  and the sponsors of the Lovejoy Robotics program were greatly appreciated by all. It’s safe to say that, yet again, Lovejoy Robotics is succeeding well, with 10 teams already qualified for Regionals, and now currently getting ready for it.

“I am so thrilled S won the Excellence [award] and H won the Think [award]  and I’m very happy with the overall results of all 4 teams. I feel great about them [the Lovejoy teams competing]. I thought they all did fantastic, worked very hard, never quit, and I’m proud they gave it their all,” Coach Strickland explains.